


Beating Hearts

by ghostlypng



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Angst, Eventual Romance, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sad, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-10-19 21:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10648383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostlypng/pseuds/ghostlypng
Summary: Shiro feels hollow, barely passing through life, when he's gifted a robot meant to help his day-to-day life.It doesn't take long before he and his friends are caught up in a complex swirl of mystery surrounding this robot.None of them realize just how deep and dark this conspiracy goes.Not even the unique robot named Keith.





	1. The First Spark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [miihuan on twitter](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=miihuan+on+twitter).



There’s nothing “therapeutic” about physical therapy. Shiro decides within the first two or three visits. He feels out of place every Thursday morning as they put him through stretches and strengthening exercises. Unwelcome in the space mostly occupied by the elderly and one or two young athletes sharing it. Shiro with his arm made of metal feels more sideshow than patient. He does his best to avoid the attention by giving his to the news station the televisions are always set to.

“Trouble cooking and watching the kids at the same time? Worried for your loved one living alone?” Shiro squeezes the ball in his hand a little slower, his attention divided. “Automatons are the babysitters and caretakers of the future!” Shiro feels peeled apart when the advertisement brags on the advanced carbon-fibre build of newer models. The same material that makes up one-fourth of his limbs. Even after the PT’s mute the commercial with complaints of robots stealing jobs, Shiro still doesn’t feel quite like he’s all there. He goes straight home after confirming his next appointment and falls asleep on the couch to 60’s musicals after a meal of microwavable mac-n-cheese.

Friday begins while the sky is still dark, leaving the tv and a lamp the job of illuminating Shiro’s living room. He turns them both off and moves so that he’s lying in the dark. He stares at the wall thinking about the words _Pilot Error_ till the dark room is replaced by the dark behind his eyelids. He doesn’t stir again till his phone rings in the late afternoon.

“Hello?” Shiro swallows, attempting to smooth the tired gravel out of his throat.

“Are you sleeping all day again?” Pidge’s voice greets him through the speaker.

“No, just had a nap.” It’s a lie as obvious any that Shiro has told but he can’t let her worry. He’s already been the cause of too much pain. He can feel her questions in the pause of silence that follows but she doesn’t follow up with more questions.

“Ok well mom wanted me to remind you about dinner tonight. She’s making lasagne!” Pidge’s enthusiasm gets him to laugh.

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Shiro is sincere in that. “Tell Mrs.Holt I’ll be right on time Katie.” There was little else discussed before they said their “See you later”’s and hung up.

Shiro loved and loathed Friday night dinner’s at the Holt’s dinner table. Mrs.Holt, a history professor with a penchant for cooking and collecting unique art, had treated Shiro like a son since Matt had brought him home on break from university that had been too short for Shiro to actually travel to his own family. She’d tease Matt about needing to workout more than just his brain to catch up to Shiro’s physical size and interrupt their studying for snack breaks.

When he woke up from the crash, missing an arm and staring down the words _Pilot Error_ like the barrel of a gun, she was sitting in his hospital room with his own mother. She didn’t even blame him at the funeral when he was too numb to cry. These memories often made the drive to the Holt’s smothering. He’d turn the radio louder and drive a little faster, reckless in the confrontation of his own storm but he could never bring himself to go too fast or do something illegal like run a red light. Every time he still found himself at the front door, ringing them bell like a new guest and still wondering Why am I still here.

Mrs. Holt fussed as she opened the door. “Takashi, come in! Katie was afraid you would be late. She’s been in her room all day working on a new project and she’s so eager to show you.” He let her steer him into the living room. “Go on now, I don’t need extra hands in the kitchen. I’ll call you both when it’s ready.” Shiro couldn’t have protested if he’d tried because she’d waved down the hall and bustled back into the kitchen.

“Pidge?” He called, checking out the walls to catalog the new things hanging up. ”I’m here.”

“I’m in here!” She called back to him from her room, the door cracked rather than open as it usually was. Shiro knocked twice before entering.

“Hey there. Your mom said you’re working on something?”

“Yep. Found a helper bot and I’m fixing it. Someone threw it out! Can you believe that?” Shiro could. People replaced older bots with newer models all the time. Usually the older model would be traded in or refurbished and sold again.

“Sounds like quite the task. What sort of model is he?”

“Diagnostics said he’s a K31T Helper. One of his eyes was broken and I think whoever threw him out removed the electromagnets out of his audio. It wasn’t a very good job either. I mean, if you have money to just throw out a fancy bot like this, why not have a professional work on it?”

“So Keith huh?” Pidge nods at the joke, accepting it seriously. “I haven’t got a good answer for that one but I agree with you. It does seem a bit cruel.” Shiro knew little about bots in comparison to Pidge who was nothing short of an expert on them.

“It’s not like they can feel pain.” Pidge scoffed just a bit. “But the nerve! How’s this thing supposed to do it’s job when it can’t use verbal communication?.” It was clear she’d keep going so Shiro put out another question.

“What are you going to do with it once it’s fixed? You’re not going far for university in the fall.” It wasn’t an option with Katie still being so young. He also doubted she’d keep it seeing how she already had two small drones she built to be her assistants. Pidge fixed him with a look of that could only be described as exasperation.

She hit a a computer key, starting up a systematic reboot that was to be the lighting that brought her creation to life. “He’s for you Shiro.”

Shiro fumbled for words. “Katie, I- What, I don’t.” He sucked in a breath “I really don’t need a fancy automaton to take care of me.”

“You can’t have pets in your apartment and you only come over like once a week. Mom said it would be a good idea..” Shiro gives way at the sulky sounding mention of her mom. Pidge knew too well where his weaknesses lied. “You can take it with you when you leave as long as you don’t care it’s gonna be a few days before I get new parts so he can talk.”

“Sure.” He croaked out. Somehow Shiro didn’t think no was an option.

That night he leaves with more than just an armful of leftovers he probably won’t eat and that something more is silent with violet eyes.

“I’ll text you when I get his parts in okay.” Pidge waves goodbye to Shiro from Holt’s front porch. “Bye Keith bot! Make sure Shiro gets home safe!”

Shiro wonders all the way home if Pidge’s words are the reason the bot stares so intently, hands resting flat on its knee joints, at the road as Shiro drives. He tries not to feel too bad when he makes it wait in the car while he stops to buy beer. It’s barely hour once he’s home, sitting on his couch with beer and a movie playing, that he crumbles.

“Hey.” Shiro calls softly. “Keith.” He pats the spot beside him when his bot finally turns its gaze from the TV to where Shiro sits on the couch. “Come sit.” Shiro falls asleep sitting on the couch again and doesn’t stir when he’s lifted and tucked into bed by the android.

Keith watches him sleep.


	2. Amalgamation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk makes his first appearance, Keith gets his voice back and Shiro lets himself start to grieve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta'd as per always

Saturday and Sunday pass in the same silent way that Shiro has allowed his days to wilt into. Background noise from his television layered with pointless puzzle games and the new addition of Keith in his home keep him occupied just enough that when his morning alarm begins to buzz and chirp under his pillow on Monday, he almost feels like going to work.

He makes the effort to get up he even manages to make himself coffee while Keith watches. It’s after he’s showered and looking in the bathroom mirror that he remembers why he’s avoided work so long in the first place. Keith comes to join him on the couch without being prompted this time. Shiro tries to avoid the realization of what his days have become.

A text message from Pidge makes him mess up the aim in the cellphone game he has open. He’s a little angry when he quits the level, knowing he’ll have to start it over for a perfect score. He tries not to sound sour in his reply to her.

“So,” Shiro pulls his game back up. “Katie just let me know we can come over later. She got her parts in and she’ll fix your voice when we- Hey!” Keith stands so quickly he bumps Shiro’s arm, making his goal of a perfect score unattainable yet again. Shiro locks his phone and throws it with just enough care that it lands in the chair across from him.

“Fuck!” He hunches forward, balls his hands into fists and brings them down on the tops of his thighs. “Fuck!” He screams the word a second time, drawing it out and grateful all his neighbors are at work so that it’s only Keith hearing him. “Don’t look at me right now!” The order comes out angry and biting and Shiro instantly regrets it as Keith turns back to the television and sits again.

“I.. I’m sorry.” Apologizing to a robot strikes Shiro as odd but it still feels right to do it. Even though he doesn’t think Keith’s AI system is capable of reproducing the emotions it logs from patients. “We can now. I’ll.. Put on pants.” He’s not sure if it’s his imagination or not that Keith nods as Shiro gets up to change.

Mrs. Holt isn’t home when he and Keith arrive, Shiro knows by the missing car from the drive. He hesitates before he lets them both in with the spare key Matt had given him as gift one year. Matt had presented the key with it’s cute dog design then cracked a joke about Shiro finally getting a puppy like he’d wanted. He’s quick to shove his keys back into the pocket of his jacket and leave it hanging in the hallway.

“Hey,” Shiro calls out into the dim home. “It’s me.” She knew the sound of his voice well. “I’m early and I brought Keith.” He guesses that Katie’s turned her headphones up too loud to hear him again. He knocks twice before he opens the door to her room and pauses. Three sets of eyes are on him rather than two. One being Katie’s, the second are robotic ones belonging to Keith and the third belonging to a young man.

Shiro’s eyebrows furrow together. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I brought Keith for you Pidge.” He’s mindful of her nickname in front of her friend.

“That’s fantastic! You remember Hunk right?” She gestures at him sitting next to her. “He’s one of the other interns for the robotics department!” 

Hunk taps his fingers together, a little bit sheepish now that he’s face-to-face with basically a celebrity of the science community. “I helped Pidge build some of the new parts for your bot.”

Shiro tries to answer Hunk’s grin with as best a smile as he can manage while he feels out of place. “Thank you Hunk, I really appreciate that. I’m definitely curious to know what he sounds like.”

“C’mon then!” Pidge pats the work table beside them. “Let’s get Keith up here so we can find out!”

Pidge talks as she and Hunk work. “It’s so weird. He’s got all kinds of mismatched parts like someone was trying out custom builds.”

“Oh?” Shiro peers over them just a bit to look into the open cavity of Keith’s chest. He can see Hunk nodding in agreement.

“Yeah it’s real weird. Galra tech isn’t really compatible with Altean tech so I can’t really figure out the point of trying to fit a Helper model with denser body plates. Ooh unless they were trying to make a super healing ninja bot!” Hunk poses and makes exaggerated karate chop motions that make Pidge laugh and roll her eyes. “I mean hey,” He shrugs. “It would explain the no voice thing too.”

“It’s an interesting theory at least..” Shiro concedes, picking at the skin around his thumb now as he watches Pidge finish installing the parts. The three of them stare as Keith only lays there.

“Is it functioning?” Hunk turns to Pidge, who turns to her computer to read the diagnostics. The parts had been pulled apart, modified and put back together by the two before they’d put them into Keith so there was no 100% guarantee of everything working properly.

Shiro’s eyes move from Keith’s chest up to his face. He gets a little shiver realizing the robot hasn’t looked away from him during the entire process. “..Keith..?”

“Hello Shiro, can I assist you?” Hunk jumps like a startled rabbit and Pidge cheers at the sound. The two share a high-five before the seal Keith back up and get him sitting up. Keith obediently sits, watching and waiting.

“Why don’t you recite the alphabet for us Keith?” Shiro requests it to break the silence.

“Ohh good idea!” Pidge chimes in. 

Keith taps a finger in perfect rhythm as he says each letter. “A, B, C, D, …” Shiro can tell Hunk and Pidge don’t notice but he finds himself a little unnerved by it.

Mrs. Holt doesn’t complain about the extra addition of Hunk and Keith at the dining table that night. She just smiles big how Hunk talks with his hands and at the way Shiro can’t seem to stop chiming in with questions for the two teenagers at the table. She even delights in the way Keith seems to silently insist on helping to clean up after.

The Monday night excitement fades for Shiro on the drive home. The change of suburbs into lit up city streets and businesses with flashing neon sign make him feel like a ghost, existing on a plane alternate from reality. At home, he turns on movies for Keith then goes to his room and changes for bed. Occupying himself again with games until his eyes are too heavy to keep open any longer.

It’s the vibrating alarm on his wristwatch that serves as his wake up call in the morning instead of his phone. Trying to check his cell phone proves pointless. Falling asleep with a game running had drain the battery and killed it. Annoyed, he tells himself he’ll charge it later and shoves it under an extra pillow. It’s while he’s trying to go back to sleep and not let his brain do algorithms that he remembers keith also has a battery and also has not been charged. Slight panic gets him out of bed, phone forgotten behind.

“Keith?” He finds him sitting on the couch perfectly upright and still activated, evident by the way Keith looks his way. “I need to connect you to your charging dock I-” He closes his eyes against the way he feels like he’s going to cry. It’s Keith’s new voice that snaps him out of it.

“I am capable of completing that task myself. You are experiencing low levels of blood sugar. I will bring you a glass of juice.” Shiro sits at that. He doesn’t see the point in arguing with the bot. The orange juice in the glass Keith hands him tastes a little too ripe. He sips it anyway and thinks about going out to buy groceries. Keith takes the cup back from it when it’s empty and says nothing as Shiro goes back to sleep on the couch.

Shiro knows by the way the sky looks coming through the glass of his living room window that he’s slept the day away and missed that Tuesday’s physical therapy appointment. He’s still waking himself up when Keith comes into view with a glass of water. The sight makes him realize he’s hungry.

“Can you make me something to eat?” He asks as he takes the glass. “I think I have soup in the pantry.”

Keith walks into the kitchen and Shiro remembers to get up to find his phone and charge it. It’s after the chime it makes once connected to its cable by his couch that Shiro realizes that, other than the single closing of a cabinet, the kitchen is silent. He walks in to see Keith staring down at the counter.

“Was there no soup?” He walks closer in to where Keith is and spots a can of low sodium beef stew sitting on the counter. “Is it expired?” He picks the can up to inspect the label, confused because he didn’t even think can souped could expire. Keith answers the question before he can find out if the soup does have an expiration date or not.

“I cannot access any programming for cooking. The data does not exist in my systems.”

“Oh?” The admission baffles Shiro much more than learning Keith contained parts from rival robotics companies. He makes a note to ask Pidge about looking into it later. ”I can just order delivery.” He says it though he really doesn’t want to put in the effort for it.

“With instruction I can perform the task and my system’s memory will allow me to memorize and duplicate the process again as many times as Shiro would like.” Keith’s voice sounds so determined and matter-of-fact that Shiro finds himself impressed by the effort Pidge has put into making Keith’s programming seem so life-like. He adds that to his list of things to tell her.

“Right.” Shiro says, amused as he teaches Keith to open and heat a can of soup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't think I'd be updating so soon but wow. I've got so much planned for this story so hopefully you enjoy and keep reading. 
> 
> If you like what I do you can tip me [here](https://www.ko-fi.com/ghostmachine)
> 
>  
> 
> Also find me on twitter @[gh0st_png](https://twitter.com/gh0st_png/) if you wanna talk sheith or robots or anything really.
> 
> leave any feedback in the comments thanks


	3. Adiago

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?”  
> ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
> 
> Gears in the machine begin to turn, the pieces are starting to fall into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for taking my sweet time on updating. chronic pain has been keepin me down. and my job. but it's here!

Wednesday is uneventful. It ends with the soundtrack of a dvd menu playing on loop while Shiro’s not awake or motivated enough to change it when he is roused by Keith to move from the couch to the bed.

Thursday arrives with a summer heat that’s heavy and hard to get away from even in the cool airconditioned building his therapy happens in. Shiro longs for the distraction Keith would provide from his discomfort as the friendly receptionist greets him. The highlights of her hair remind Shiro of caramel drizzled on a brownie. The thought of sweet, sugary food nauseates him further.

“Hey, Captain Shirogane.” She’s friendly with her greeting, teeth showing from the width of her grin. “You missed your uncle on Tuesday. He stopped by to ask about how you’re doing. I had to tell him you were going to miss your session.”

Shiro listens to her chatter while he signs himself in on the clipboard for check-ins. “Oh yeah? Did he say which he was? Big family.” He plays sheepish, redirecting the receptions enthusiasm away from focusing on him.

“He did!” She spins slightly behind the desk, chair following her motion. “Here,”She spins back to face him with another lit up smile. “He left this asking if I could get it to you.” The “it” she hands him is a crisp, white business card with simple glossy black text and a logo in one corner.

“Honestly I thought he said his name was Oolong at first! Ha!” Shiro nearly cringes at the obnoxiously rude joke but offers his best attempt at a fake laugh anyway to keep her amiable and convinced he finds her amusing. Anything to get by.

“Dr. S. Ulaz  
Bio Robotics  
Galra Tech.  
x(xxx)xxx-xxxx”

Shiro reads the card twice quickly before he pockets it. The name and number one he’s fairly sure he’s never seen before. The friendly receptionist girl doesn’t seem to pick up any of his distress because she goes back to drawing him into conversation again.

“So is al your family living around here?” Kathy asks, while Shiro finally reads her nametag and registers the letters of her name into his head.

“Um. Some.” He does his best to keep up with the conversation but he’s relieved when they call him back from that waiting room and to the small tabled area towards the back of the exercise room. They leave him to himself for the most part, only coming to check in on him or hand him a ball with a high density to squeeze.

He does his PT half heartedly. Mind too busy trying to puzzle out why a Galra Tech scientist would come looking for him. He knows the logical assumption would be to blame his new arm. The most advanced prosthetic on the market, designed by a former Altea Industries scientist and the founder of Galra Tech himself, Dr. Zarkon.

Shiro can’t stop his train of thought from careening dangerously toward a place in his head he’s actively avoided for so long.

His part he’d played in the gaining his new arm had very little to do with him as a person. He had been a last attempt, the first and only non-military subject of a project for soldiers to remain combat ready by receiving high-tech prosthetics. In the end, it hadn’t worked and the project had been shut down for reasons of being unsuitable and inefficient cost-wise in the long term.

It was a near year of his life that Shiro couldn’t remember outside or recurring nightmares while he slept and knowing that he’d been sedated often and heavily. When times bring up the question of why he can’t remember, he blames it on the trauma. The physical of losing his arm, the emotional of losing his most important person and the physical again that came with his new arm.

Arriving home brings him back to the present. He chooses the stairs over the elevator and thinks as he climbs two floors.

Why would the man say he was Shiro’s uncle? To draw less attention? He’d still given himself away with giving out his business card, if that was actually who the mystery man was. There are pieces missing from the puzzle.

Shiro wishes, just for the smallest sliver of a moment, he could remember even just a bit more of his his lost year if it would help him stop thinking about it as hard as he was. It does it’s best to baffle him and give him a migraine.

Keith is watching movies when Shiro walks in the door. It stops Shiro on his way from living room to kitchen because he knows for certain Keith is watching something he does not remember owning. He laments into his yogurt over just how poor his memory has become. The silence between them doesn’t break when Shiro joins him on the couch. It begs the question of if Keith can sense Shiro’s distress. It was more likely to Shiro that Keith was just programmed to be quiet. Other than explaining his inability to cook, the robot had little input besides the odd question now and again about how Shiro was feeling. The smooth, featureless, hard plastic of Keith’s front head-plate let Shiro imagine Keith was totally absorbed in the animated film that was playing.

In the end, it was anxiety on the following Monday morning that pushed Shiro into finally making a call to the number on the business card.

“Galra Technologies, robotics devision, Dr. Ulaz’ office.” A professional, feminine voice answers the call after only three-fourths of the first ring.  
“Hi, yes,” Shiro fumbles over his words even though he’d written them out beforehand. “This is his nephew calling. Can I speak with him please?” He worries his lip over the slight hesitation he’d had at saying the word nephew. He’d never been a very good liar.

“Hold one moment please.” The voice is replaced by a commercial sounding one. It begins to tell him of all the great achievements of Galra Tech accompanied by soft music in the background. It’s two minutes and nearly forty three seconds when that too is cut off with another click.

“Ulaz speaking.”

“This is your ‘nephew’..” Shiro trails off, unsure of where he’s walking in the situation. His brain holds with paranoia it’s all a prank on him.

“Ah yes, nephew. There are things we really need to catch up on. When can we meet? Sooner is preferable.” His tone holds a warning of ‘Do not make me wait.’

Shiro obliges him, his wince hidden on one side of the call. “Tomorrow then?” He says it likes he’s sure of himself even though he isn’t. He does not want to do this. He writes down the offered address and time down anyway.

“And please,” Ulaz adds almost as if it’s an afterthought. “Bring your new friend.”

Shiro gets chills. His eyes turn to the general area of where Keith must be sitting on the other side of his bedroom wall. If this was about his arm, why allude to his robot? He knows the other man couldn’t mean Hunk.

Sleep doesn’t come easy that night. His apnea and nightmares ruin any chances of real rest.

It’s after his physical therapy that Shiro is driving himself and Keith to the sandwich shop Ulaz had picked. Shiro’s taking them by the front to find close parking when Keith startles him with the sound of his voice as two men heading for the restaurant's entrance pass by.

“I know those men. Somehow, their faces.. Are in my memory banks.”

Shiro feels his lungs get a little tighter and his stomach knot with anxiety. Definitely not looking for Hunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith is using Shiro's credit card to buy movies. He's picking his own movies!! if that wasn't obvious. He's watching the old Disney cartoon Sleeping Beauty. Bc he's "sleeping" in a way. anyways i think it's cute.
> 
> if you like my stuff you can buy me a coffee[ here](https://www.ko-fi.com/A0741456)
> 
> or find me on twitter at[ gh0st_png](https://twitter.com/gh0st_png/)
> 
> comments are the best?? pls offer them to me.


	4. Flayed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro meets with Thace and Ulaz and then meets Lance and learns more about Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter dedicated to Gabby, whose birthday was yesterday.

The first thing Shiro does once he’s parked the car is lock the doors. It bothers him how they open all of their own volition as soon as he puts the stick into it’s top slot. The next thing he does is immediately dial Pidge. It rings till it reaches voicemail both times he tries. 

“Hey. Pidge. I’m with Keith at this cafe and there’s something weird going on and I just.” His words get caught somewhere between his stomach and mouth but he takes a breath instead of choking. “I’m leaving Keith in the car,” The bot’s head turns just slightly in his direction. Like it’s interested in Shiro’s one sided conversation. “And I’ll call you again when I leave.” The potential unknown stretches out in front of him like a black hole threatening to swallow him back down. It leaves him feeling just as automated as Keith as he ends the message and gets ready to face the two men he can see sitting in at a corner table of the patio area.

“You brought yourself a friend I see.” He greets them without offering up a hello first. No inches to turn to miles, he demands of himself.

Ulaz doesn’t seem offended as Shiro takes a seat across from them. “My colleague, Dr. Thace. It’s unlikely you met but he was part of the team to design your arm.” The man directly across from Shiro only eyes him, face stern and closed to curious eyes. Shiro relents first.

“Okay. But I know that’s not actually part of why you’re here.” Thace’s face cracks and shifts in a way that confuses Shiro till he realizes with a panic that someone must be behind him on his more vulnerable right side. It takes only a second for him to turn and rise to his feet, needing the advantage of speed until he realizes it’s only Keith behind him. 

There’s a moment where no one speaks. The moment passes like a racing heartbeat before glass hits the ground and shatters, breaking loudly into pieces. Keith is the floor that rises to meet it, sending the silence to pieces with just a word.

“Father?” 

That six-letter word brings Dr. Thace to his feet. “Akira!” 

Ulaz tugs Thace back down into his seat. “You did bring him then.” 

Shiro looks between the other three weakly. “Keith..” He pulls the only other chair out for the robot to sit in and tries to ignore that Thace and Ulaz are watching intently.

“He’s speaking.” Ulaz points it out to Thace and Shiro doesn’t hide the anger in his face at how they stare at his Keith, knowing it must have been the two how put him in such a state of disrepair. “These repairs speak of another party.” Ulaz turns to include Shiro in the conversation, unfazed at his downturned mouth and scrunched brows. “Who else knows you have this bot?”

Ulaz’s inarguable tone returns. Shiro loathes the need to answer that jumps in his chest. He keeps it simple to only just satisfy the urge. “A friend. The one who found him.” The way Thace’s eyebrow raises tell Shiro his answer still was not simple enough.

“The trespassing thief.” Shiro makes a note to scold Katie later. “And that is the only other person who knows?” This time it’s Thace asking. 

“I don’t take him out much, so yes.” In truth Shiro doesn’t go out much so neither does Keith. The most exploring they have done is through television subscriptions for movies to watch. 

“That is still too many.” Ulaz looks around, then to Shiro, before back to Thace again.. “We have to take him quickly.” He starts rising to his feet, the whole thing going a little too fast for Shiro to process with no reference point to figure out just what is happening.

Thace follows Ulaz’ lead, reaching out for Keith. “Come Akira. We must get you to where it is safe.”

Shiro stands and intercepts, getting between Thace and his bot. “Look, wait a second. Akira, I mean Keith, I mean. Look, my helper bot isn’t going anywhere.” He wasn’t about to let the two men take Keith off somewhere. They’d already left him in the trash once and Shiro could sympathize too well with being Galra Tech. cast off. 

It was both fortunate and unlucky the patio area was empty of spectators to witness Ulaz growing upset and raising his voice. “You meddle in things you do not fully understand.” Shiro felt an urge to bite the finger in his face like an angry dog.

“I know enough to realize that you put him in the garbage because he was broken after you took away his ability to communicate and do the job Altea Corp built his model for.” It reassures him to see Keith nodding beside him, even if it seems almost uncertain. 

Thace watches Keith, seemingly enthralled but relenting. He stays watching still while he speaks. “Akira was not created for such a limited existence.” He glances between Shiro and Keith and relents further, to the obvious irritation of Ulaz. “But very well then. He will remain with you until we are able to orchestrate his freedom and reunite him to his true self.” 

Thace and Ulaz lean into each other and reach out in sync with one another, touching either side of Keith’s face. It’s reminiscent of the way he’d watched Matt’s father hold his son’s face with both hands, knowing the inevitable. Shiro own hands had chosen to fight the controls. To fight the inevitable. But Matt had hated to be babied. One look at his own empty hands and the fight leaves Shiro like an ember hitting the ground and quickly going out in the dirt.

The four part ways with Ulaz and Thace leaving first after giving Shiro the number to a cheap cellphone, instructing him to use it only in an emergency as it’s only single use. He wonders if they have a special way of ridding themselves of burner phones or just litter like most people despite a career in science technology. 

This time when he’s in the car with the doors lock, he calls Pidge till she actually answers him. 

“We need to talk about Keith. Can you get Hunk to meet us too?”

Pidge’s annoyed chatter fades into a serious tone. “We can go to his house. I’ll text you his address.”

“Sounds like a plan. And Pidge? Try to hurry?”

When Pidge huffs and hangs up he knows she’ll bustle. 

She introduces Shiro and Keith to Hunk’s roommate and boyfriend Lance when they arrive and then elbows him out of the doorway when he just stands in the middle of it staring at Shiro hard enough to make him paranoid he’s got something stuck to his face. Even worse, is the point when Keith’s faceplate is turned to focus on him too as they enter Hunk’s apartment and Shiro finds his cheeks cheeks getting warm.

It takes two times of Shiro sending Keith to the kitchen to help Hunk out with making food, because Hunk had insisted they eat first and talk second, before the robot listens and leaves the room. He waits till Keith’s in the small kitchenette area, facing away from where they’re sitting on the couch, before he opens up to talk.

“You took him from private property didn’t you.” He can see the guilt all over Pidge’s face. “You could have been caught! I know you’re still a minor but that could still get you into some serious trouble. I won’t tell your mom this time but-” He’s cut off by Lance flopping down on the seat beside him.

“Ohh Pidge.” Lance sing-songs. “You been sneaking out again?” Shiro frowns at the both in turns but he isn’t able to get a word in because Lance keeps talking. “I don’t like your stupid bot. No offense, but look at it!” Shiro looks past Lance into the kitchen where Keith is cutting vegetables like some sort of robot ninja in a video game. “Hunk said it couldn’t cook but it’s over there taking my spot!” Pidge scoffs and gives him an eyeroll. Shiro however can’t pull his eyes away from the sight of Keith and his knife. 

“He.. Can’t?” It’s a question Shiro can’t answer. Another puzzle piece that somehow still doesn’t really fit with any of the others. The easiest answer would be Keith seeing it in a movie but Shiro knows he hadn’t put on a single movie with realistic violence. “I taught him how to open a can of soup and heat it up on the stove but that’s all.” 

“So unfair!” Lance slumps down into the couch and toes the floor rug. “I always slice the veggies.” Pidge rolls her eyes again but it seems that she’s used to Lance’s sulking. She offers Shiro a shrug as they share a look, before she moves to sit at the island counter that serves as a table while it separates the kitchenette and living room. Shiro comes to stand behind her, leaving Lance to alternate between sulking at the living room tv and sulking in Hunk’s direction. 

“I thought you said he couldn’t cook!” Hunk echoes Lance but full of excitement rather than sourness. 

Keith’s arm pauses mid-motion. “We are cooking?” Lance fails to hear the words come from Keith but the other three share looks of unnerved discomfort. Shiro guesses by the way Pidge draws up that she’s very much creeped out. The puzzle piece changes and clicks together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> believe it or not this chapter had been written for weeks but i've been to busy to type it up
> 
>  
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/gh0st_png/)  
> [tumblr](https://ghostmachinations.tumblr.com)  
> [fuel me with coffee](ko-fi.com/ghostmachine)
> 
> Kudos and comments always appreciated.


	5. Lullaby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lulls in time, leading to goodbyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's shorter than the other chapters but it needed to be to fit properly, also I wanted to get in another update to make up for a lack of them from before. 
> 
> Thanks for all the comments guys I read them all and respond a hundred times in my head then get too shy to actually say anything but i read and love all of them!!

Space is a void. An endless vacuum, empty of sound and gravity. A free fall in space would leave you forever tumbling through the dark. Helpless. The possibility of danger had never frightened Shiro before now. He’d only just been promoted to captain. He doesn’t want to let Matt down. Matt’s getting further away, drifting. Shiro can’t reach, the controls are encasing his hands and he can’t reach out. Why can’t he let go? 

Glass explodes from outside pressure and flames caress the ship in more places he can’t see but sensors still show on the screen that it’s happening. The ground is rising up and up, offering to hold them all forever and then there’s a knife in Shiro’s side. It’s never happened like this before and it wakes him up, eyes opening to a purple glow hovering above him. 

“Your sleep was not restful.” The lights in Keith’s face plate change to mimic soundwaves. An addition Lance had somehow convinced Pidge and Hunk to add at some point during the evening. Shiro sits up, joints popping and quiet whirrs coming from his prosthetic as it adjust to his finally loosened grip. He rubs the back of his head, aching all over from the surface of Lance’s couch being lumpy and hard and Keith’s thighs being as comfortable a pillow as stone. He doesn’t remember falling asleep that way.

“Yes. I was having a bad dream.”

“A dream?”

“Mhm.: Shiro turns to lean away from Keith, doing his best to wedge his shoulders in the corner. “Sometimes when people sleep they see things in their head.”

“With their eyes closed?”

Shiro smiles, eyes already closing again, and tries not to yawn too loud. “Yes. It’s like a movie playing. It doesn’t always make sense though.”

Keith is quiet for a while and Shiro is just starting to tilt his head back and go back to resting when the feeling of the knife that woke him from his dream the first time is back. It’s Keith’s finger, poking him in the side a little hard.

“I wasn’t asleep yet..” Shiro’s voice is watery and tired but still protesting. 

Keith’s faceplate seems dimmer somehow. “When I am charging. I think of a room.”

“Oh?” Shiro wonders if he’s fallen asleep and dreaming something new.

“Yes. I am with my father and? There are people coming. They ask me to fight and my body looks like yours. I do not want to do what they want me to do and I.. Are you listening Takashi?” 

Shiro’s eyes flutter open for a brief second. “That sounds like a really strange dream Keith.” 

When the sun comes up, scraps of a dream pass in Shiro’s mind over his coffee while he watches Keith charging but he can’t recall of what. He turns to Pidge to ask her if robots have the potential to dream. She only shrugs and lays her head on the table while Hunk sings and cooks breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everyone is awake and in the kitchen but Lance. he's in the shower singing and exfoliating. or maybe dreaming about.
> 
> kiss kiss, cosplay keith. that'll be what i'm doing in a week. i even made voltron stickers to give away.  
> i'm so tender for shieth. 
> 
>  
> 
> [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/gh0st_png/)  
> [tumblr](https://www.ghostmachinations.tumblr.com)  
> [fuel me with coffee](https://www.ko-fi.com/ghostmachine)


	6. Dive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is cute and still likes the color red.
> 
> Questions get answered and replaced with more questions, Allura and Coran are there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too."  
> \- S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
> 
>  
> 
> (Would anyone wanna commission a sheith fic? or any fic rly. maybe like 10-15$ for 1k words or something??)

Maybe it’s the change of scenery once a week or having someone around to sit in silence with that does it. Either way, Shiro’s life starts again. Like the batteries of a clock replaced so that the hands begin to tick and turn, things resume.

For the first time he takes Keith out, deciding that buying groceries is suddenly something he can do. The isles scream with possibility of danger at him but Keith’s chatter keeps him occupied. 

“These are fruits?” Keith holds up a little plastic tub of bite sized tomatoes. 

“Hm. Yes and no. Some would argue they are and others disagree.”

“Then they are like me?”

“A tomato?”

“A hybrid.” Keith sets the little tub in Shiro’s cart. “Your Pidge told me I contain different parts than the standard. Did she tell you?”

“Oh well yes. She did.”

“And?”

“Well it doesn’t really seem to matter does it?” Shiro keeps to his task of finding a banana bunch that’s got just the right amount of green to not be overripe before he gets around to eating them. “You’re a helper bot right? You’re fulfilling your tasks well and that’s where it counts.”

They fall into silence, picking up bread last and moving to check out. Shiro lets Keith unload the cart while he massages where his prosthetic meets flesh and stares down the travel sized bottle of painkillers that hangs at the register in a row with chapstick and chips. Keith takes care of the payment, a fancy chip loaded with Shiro’s credit card information in his hand.

Silence hangs on Shiro like a heavy winter quilt draped on his shoulders. It’s only when Shiro’s car is loaded and travelling that the tide begins to come in and threaten to drown. 

Glass explodes inward as both driver side windows shatter from the fast, full frontal impact of the car that rams into them. Seconds tick by Shiro as he tries to reorient himself, hand feeling the ooze of blood on his face while his side throbs and hints at bruised ribs. 

“Shiro.” Keith has a knife pulled out from somewhere and is cutting Shiro free from his seat belt, already having freed himself. “There is danger.”

Shiro’s not really sure what words make it out of his mouth, he feels really like he should just close his eyes for a moment. Instead he turns to look and sees the car getting ready to ram them again. Taking the longer route home had been a poor choice for the day. 

“Hang on Shiro.” That’s Keith’s warning that he’s going to pull Shiro free from the vehicle. He’s sliding across the seats, Keith’s hands under his armpits, directly facing death in vehicle form when the tide goes back out as quick as it came in.

The oddest white and blue van barrels in to take it’s own shot at them but it stops short.

“Get in! I need you to hurry!” Shiro takes a look at the face of he and Keith’s rescuer while they speed away, groceries forgotten, and finally passes out from it all. 

“You are.. Like me.” 

“I’m afraid I’m not.”

“Conceptually, yes! You and Allura are very much the same! However! When it comes down to the fine details I’m afraid you’re not very much alike Keith! But that’s a-okay!”

“Yes, you see my father Alfor, he never wanted Zarkon to learn the truth about it all. Information was leaked to him which was the cause of all this. I’m so sorry we didn’t get to you sooner, I..”

The conversation continues but Shiro loses himself to the blank blackness of sleep before he can catch any more of what the newcomers are saying to Keith. When he finally wakes again, only Keith is in the room with him.

“You should take it easy. Go slowly.” Keith advises him with a warning when he begins to sit up. Shiro feels like he’s been run over and he decides that’s fine because he technically almost was.

“Where are we?” He asks Keith after a drink of water. 

“Hm. The headquarters of Altean Corporation if I understand correctly.”

“No kidding?” Shiro’s eyebrows raise high on his forehead. “How did we manage that?”

“We rescued you.” The woman he recognizes as one half of the getaway car crew sweeps into the room with a very energetic man right behind her.

“Ah. Thank you but, why did you not call the police or take us to the hospital to be looked at?”

“Well! Your friend here is a robot so our facilities are better suited for him than a hospital, not to mention Altean Corp is tops in medical science research!” The redheaded man grins at him will all the friendliness of a grandfather greeting his grandkids. Shiro, who has only even know his parent’s stern faces, finds himself looking away. 

“Also, one could say that we’re the leading developer in healing technologies! You really couldn’t be in in a more high tech facility than this! Allura and I have hands that are the safest!” His way of talking seems to force Keith’s processors to work longer to comprehend the pattern of speech. 

“Well thank you again for the rescue.” Shiro stands and makes to reach to shake the man’s hand. “I’m -”

The young woman Shiro understand to be Allura clubs his words down with a commanding interruption. 

“Captain Shirogane.”

“Yes!” The man’s cheery voice falls in behind where she leaves off. “The famous Takashi Shirogane of Galra Technologies!”

Allura leaves no gap for Shiro to speak or protest. 

“And we know very well what you’ve done.” Her eyes cut to Keith where he’s tucked himself under Shiro’s arm to support him as he shakes. “Captain.” 

Every syllable of the word is like a needle pricking down, down to reach and draw something out from inside him. 

“Now, tell us everything you know about the Paladin Project.”

Something scratches through the ice over his memories, desperate to escape.

“I don’t,” He has to stop to push back at his own thoughts. “I.” Stomach acid burns it’s way up his throat and out his nose, calming breathes turned in confusing and only adding to his pack. He sees the lights of Keiths’ faceplate moving for one second, then two, and then he’s breaking apart like a collapsing star. Turning in on himself and falling into a memory. 

_“The arm should be fully operational.”_

_“And his mind?”_

_“Malleable from the trauma.”_

_“Good. Keep a detailed analysis. This is not the end.”_

_“Yes Doctor Zarkon.” ___

____

____

The ice cracks and Shiro slips into the dark water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is longer than the last but still seems short?  
> do you guys prefer short chapters and fast updates or longer chapters and slower updates?
> 
> Either way I hope you're enjoying the story still.  
> comment or kudo or both to lmk
> 
> posted on mobile so no fancy links (and i changed my twitt handle anyways)  
> tumblr: ghostmachinations  
> twitter: ghost_png
> 
> tip me for my writing or just buy ya boy a coffee at :ko-fi.com/ghostmachine
> 
> (pls i am broke and thirsty aha)  
> 


	7. Decode

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura tells her tale. Keith reveals himself a bit more. Shiro panics, struggles, keeps going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter got long.. jeez.. hopefully you guys enjoy!!!

Mental trauma takes a toll and Shiro and time passes him, mind unaware and swaddled with exhaustion. The he comes back to consciousness and Keith holding a bottle of water for him with one hand. Keith’s other hand is gently holding his prosthetic one. His heartbeat trips over itself painfully for just a second, like knees knocking together before hitting concrete. Shiro does his best to sip water and breathe. 

“I believe I owe you an apology My. Shirogane.” Allura wrings her hands together in a seat nearby. “Keith explained the.. Fine details of your situation to us. I shouldn’t have jumped to the worst of conclusions so quickly. I am regretful. Please know you’re a welcome guest in my building.”

The overhead chiming of music startles Shiro into spilling water down his chin and onto his shirt. Keith reaches over to thumb his chin, his plastic fingers more smearing it than actually helping the situation. 

“It’s alright. It’s just her.” Keith takes the bottle from Shiro as he talks.

“Her?”

“She’s part of the building.” Keith nods in Allura’s direction. The other man in the room at last joins the conversation with a chuckle.

“More that it’s an extension of Allura actually!” He twirls his mustache, grinning down at Shiro like a rising sun. “Name’s Coran! It’s good to meet you officially Mr. Takashi! And Keith as well! Very good indeed!” His excitement seems so genuine that Shiro finds himself nodding in agreement with an attempt of a thin smile.

Allura shifts forward in her seat, closer to Shiro but posture still fit for a queen. “We were waiting for you to wake up so that we could have a proper discussion about things with you.”

“Yes! Keith was absolutely insistent on keeping you in the loop.” Shiro looks at Keith with Coran’s admission, wishing so much that Keith had more to his face than a smooth panel with lights behind it. Keith’s eyes never change from their bright circle shape. 

Shiro looks back to Coran. “The loop of what exactly?”

“Why. The very thing we were talking about from the start.” Coran’s voice is gentler this time around, like a tiptoeing child. Shiro can feel the way their eyes follow him. Watching and waiting in case he happened to pass out again.

“The.. Project right?” He tries out the words, chasing them with a few more sips of water. 

Coran’s enthusiasm returns to it’s maximum. “The Paladin Project yes!” Allura picks up after him, elaborating on just what exactly they were speaking of.  
“It all began as a joint idea between the founder of Altean Corp., my father, and a scientist named Zarkon. The idea was a robot that was more than just for healing and taking care of a patient.” Shiro’s tempted to sneak a glance at Keith when she pauses but he waits for her to continue. “A robot that could fill an emotional void and assist, truly assist, with a patient’s internal well-being.” She watches him like she’s waiting for him to add the numbers up so he does his best to guess despite wishing she’d just say things straight forward rather than add in all the grandior to her explanation. 

He gives his best guess regardless, still trying to please. “A.. Mind robot?”

Allura smiles at that. The barest hint of teeth alluding to a smug confidence in landing the soliloquy of a once in a lifetime performance. “Artificial life. For the sick and lonely. The lost and childless.” 

“Did they succeed?” Shiro’s mouth feels dry and this time he does glance at Keith, wondering things even more than before. 

“In the beginning no, life cannot just be created from wires and metal.” Her words ease Shiro’s shoulders down from where he’d unconsciously drawn them up to nearly his ears. He wills himself not to scratch at the sudden itch of where metal meets skin at his shoulder. Allura looks at Keith and Coran and seems solemn when she adds to her answer. “Heart and soul isn’t producible the way a body is. The true birth of this technology came after my own birth, when I died.”

Gravity presses in on Shiro, crushing the air from his lungs and the colors of the room out of his eyes. “But you? You’re right here.” He knows she hasn’t moved from her spot in the seat across from him, even as dark black snowflakes flurry around in his vision. “You’re alive.” He squeezes out the last of his air with panic words. Keith lays a hand on his shoulder and pushes, easily getting him to go back to laying down. Keith’s fingers gently squeeze his shoulder, an anchor of safety in choppy waters. 

They all wait for Shiro’s breathing to even out and then Allura presses forward, still working up to the core of the her story. “Parts of my body are synthetic, while other parts are biomechatronic. A combination of technology and organic matter. Some of it even artificially grown.” She tucks her hair behind an ear and that’s when Shiro finally notices how the unusual shape of it. Taking note of the earring that seems as if it’s built into her ear itself, Shiro finds himself reminded of antennas and elven princesses.

“Zarkon, knowing the technology now viable, stole what he could of it from my father’s research files in order to use it to create spies and soldiers. We believe you were in fact part of his many research projects to put together the missing pieces he couldn’t steal.” 

Shiro can’t bare to keep looking at her when she says as much. The idea of someone possibly knowing he and others were suffering, put through testing that anyone with a sound mind would find inhumane, and do nothing to help. It was a hard thought to have.  
“Unfortunately while the government was funding things, albeit unknowing of Zarkon’s true intentions, there was little we could do to prevent their actions.” Her explanation sounds sincere enough to give Shiro the strength to look up again. 

“But that was before!” Coran urges Allura on. 

“Yes.” She smiles at Shiro and Keith and back to Shiro again. The weight of her smile hits Shiro like a ton of feathers, deceptively light in how it seems at a simple thought but still heavy as a ton of anything would be. “Before you brought Keith to us, we were helpless to take action to stop Zarkon.” 

Shiro can feel the weight of her smile, that ton of feathers, pressing down harder still. Just waiting on him for something but he isn’t sure what.

“How did you happen to remove Keith from the Galra facility?” Her question breaks the bag. The feathers scatter to nothing and Shiro finds it easy to be present again. “The information you can provide us could prove to be vital. Maybe even the key to stopping Zarkon completely.” 

It’s hard for Shiro not to be visibly relieved about not being forced to reveal things he still won’t even allow himself to think about for more than one second out of the three thousand and six hundred that make up an hour. 

“It wasn’t me. I can’t even remember my time spent there.”

“Unfortunate!” Caron speaks up for Allura, stopping her mouth when it’s opened halfway. “Just as well I suppose, we’re no worse off than before!” She still doesn’t let it go with that.

“But are you sure there’s nothing you’re able to tell us?” The backs of her knees are no longer connected to the front lip of the seat when she asks him again if he can recall anything. It’s only the gentle press of Keith’s hand to the back of his shoulder that keeps Shiro from backing down. 

“I wasn’t even the one who found him.” He can admit this much of the story to her. “My friend, Pidge, they found him. They were going through dumpsters at the Galra facility when they found Keith just sitting inside, powered down but still activated.” Pidge had told the story to them at Hunk’s house, with wild gestures over dinner. 

“I was so sure he was the one…” Allura looks at Keith with a expression that’s like the open mouth of well, sorrow deep down at the bottom where a man could drown. Shiro can’t find the words to even try to console her in her seeming moment of grief. It’s Keith who speaks up, turning Allura from the edge of jumping in. 

“Shiro told me how dreams work.” Keith’s hand slides from shoulder the the small of Shiro’s back as Shiro turns to look at him, expression carrying his own distress.  
“Keith! Please don’t.” He braces for the impact of reality to be slammed into his face with the reveal of the way he talks and cries in his sleep. Calling out for Matt. Sobbing from phantom echo of pain from his missing pieces.

“I dream about things when Shiro is charging me.” The reveal surprises them all. Coran is the first to recover.

“Well that’s excellent Keith! You know, Allura used to dream of flower fields so often, Alfor built her a simulation room to recreate them!”

“That’s brilliant Coran!” We can attach Keith to the interface and walk inside his dream!” She doesn’t wait for Shiro to agree before she and Coran are ushering Keith up and waving Shiro to follow them.

The simulation room is two parts. One is a small, rectangular area with several screens and computers that display a blur of numbers that’s too fast for Shiro to keep up with as it boots up. The larger part is gridded from floor to ceiling with shiny black panels that start to hum quietly as Coran hooks Keith up to a bizarre looking chair that’s set into the wall in the smaller area of the room. 

“Now Keith,” He talks to the robot as he hooks cords into Keith while Shiro watches on nervously. “This may be a bit overwhelming to your systems so we’re going to keep a close eye on you alrighty?” He doesn’t look away from Keith’s face plate but Shiro feels that those words are partially for his benefit anyhow. Coran and Allura move away to the monitors, letting Shiro pretend he has some privacy for a moment with Keith. 

“Are you.. Do you feel scared?” His own feelings border on foolish when he asks, not knowing if Keith is capable of feeling anything. The question seems insulting in some way.

“No?” Keith answers the question with certain uncertainty. “Maybe.. But I want to know where I come from.” Shiro takes Keith’s with his own flesh one. 

“I’ll be right here with you.” Keith had done that for him so many nights now and Shiro hadn’t know enough to return the favor but he would this time. He leans over and kisses top middle of Keith’s face plate he equates to the center of a forehead. “Sweet dreams Keith.”

Keith’s facial lights dim and Shiro gently strokes the back of his hand with his prosthetic fingers once before setting it on Keith’s thigh. The hum of the plates grows louder as they begin to build the simulation of Keith’s dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment? kudo? [buy me a coffee?](https://www.ko-fi.com/A0741456)
> 
> thanks for all ur suppport guys ;0;  
> next chapter.. keith's secrets will be revealed!!!! I HOPE UR ALL EXCITED.


	8. Steady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has a vivid imagination and accidentally breaks Allura's things. Shiro finds out he can drown in Keith's ocean eyes.

The image Keith’s memory crawls it’s way from the room’s edges, up the walls and across the floor. Shiro does a small hop over where the cells of the floor are lighting up and changing as the picture grows to fill the whole space and meet in the middle. Allura doesn’t do more than giggle, pretending it’s not at him and that she is blind to the sheepish pink statement on his cheeks.

The room Keith has created is grey still with doorways on either side and neon purple lights that travel up the walls in various places and around the doors in a way that seems more for show than actual functionality.

“Fascinating!” Coran calls out from where he watches from the monitors. “So very detailed! Why, the system barely had to fill in any blanks at all! What a vivid memory system this bot contains!”

Shiro tries to imagine an endless field of flowers of every color and variety. His mind only conjures up sunflowers, too tall to see over as they stretch to drink in the sun.

“Alright Coran.” Allura kneels and brushes her hand over a raised circle in the floor. “Bring him in.”

A dark shadowy version of Keith begins to come together, projected up from the circle. He looks as surprised to be out of his body as Shiro is. Shiro walks the circumference of Keith’s current physical container, taking in the way Keith looks so unlike the body that houses him. How Keith’s eyes still glow with inhuman purple light but now how the ability to blink at him. 

Is this how you see yourself? He wants to ask Keith but Allura doesn’t give him much of a chance to do anything past a single turn around the hologram machine. 

“Keith I need you to focus. Try to let go of the larger picture.” The image of the room flickers at her words, worrying Shiro even though he knows the room is made up only of billions of tiny lights that can’t hurt him. It’s the anxious await of being in the dark that holds him in fear. 

“That’s good Keith.” Allura reaches to hold Shiro’s shoulder while she talks. “Now, I want you to think of exactly where you are in your dream and hold it as tightly as you can. If you feel any discomfort or that you might let go, warn us immediately.” Keith nods and the room grows smaller.

Seconds are all it takes for the walls to appear closer, the floor not doing much to change to Shiro’s gratitude. 

“Oh my.” Shiro turns reluctantly from watching Keith to see what has Allura so surprised.

Pods line the wall, some filled with the dark fuzzy outlines of vague human shapes that would make sense in a dream. Shiro can see bubbles floating around in a greenish-blue sort of fluid that looks too thick to be water in the ones closer to where he and Allura stand.

"I didn't know they were working on cryogenic technology..?" Shiro directs his question at Allura as they approach the only horizontal pod in the center of the room, hoping she can fill in some of the many blank spaces of the story.

She frowns over at him without actually looking his way. "They are not. We are."

Shiro steps closer to it, nerves blinking like warning lights of a plane coming in for landing. He peers down through the cool, tinted glass, to draw in by his curiosity to feel the way Allura is pulling his arm to get him to look away. He has to know what’s inside as if the knowledge is the scratch of nails over the burning itch of mites under his skin. A temporary relief he can’t deny.

The glass domed bed is illuminated by large monitors showing vital signs and low level LEDs that are still purple and lighting up the inside. He notices first the chest that's rising and fallen evenly on it's own. His eyes work up to a face, looking peaceful with sleep. Long dark lashes. Hair slightly so long that it just brushing the sleeping form's shoulders. He traces the cute sloping bridge of their nose next, then the softly parted lips. 

"Then.." He thinks of Snow White. Enclosed in a glass coffin. "What is this?" Shiro reaches out and touches the glass so carefully, he's almost not touching it at all. Keith startles him from his reverie.

"It's me." 

Shiro finally takes notice of Allura’s attempts to pull his attention away. Keith’s eyes, now the color of Tanzanite, meet his.

“Ulaz.. They were saving me. I..” The room shudders.

“Allura!” She answers Coran’s call without hesitation.

Keith’s image starts to blur and fade, eyes turning back to their robotic glow. “Tell Thace that.. I know, I remember, and I don’t want to die.” Shiro hears the explosion of a monitor to his left and he reaches out, desperate, like a man falling from a cliff. 

“KEITH!” The room flickers dark, emergency lights cast an eerie glow around the room where Shiro is on his knees.

“Shiro.” Allura crouches next to him. “He’s okay. His physical body is intact. It will be alright.” She lifts him with a strength a person her size and build shouldn’t have and helps him to a seat. “Give him time to recharge. Things will be just fine.”

For the first time in a long time, Shiro refuses to just sleep. “I have a way to contact Thace and Ulaz. I think they can help us stop Zarkon and free Keith.” The ground seems to meet his feet, giving him somewhere to stand, as he takes a roll of leadership again. 

“Right!” Coran offers up his consent, somehow still managing a cheery sound in the after of the hour’s events.

Allura doesn’t hesitate either. “We will follow your lead Shiro but we must plan quickly.”

“Don’t you worry!” Coran hums, prying apart the one monitor that’s now smoking. “I’ll keep a good eye on Keith!” 

“Alright.” Shiro agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment? kudo? [buy me a coffee?](https://www.ko-fi.com/A0741456)
> 
> i gave away less about keith than i thought i would? oh well. the next chapter is all about keith and the Blades anyways.. guess what happens to keiths fav furry father.....


	9. Panic Switch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit from Keith's side of things, secrets and oh hey! Another car chase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy dang this took a long time for me to get around to typing? And only 1 more chapter + epilogue ? Sad... but I love writing this story..

The world inside a mind starts slowly. Crawling before walking then running full force forward into life. Akira was ever ready to run too. Yet suddenly at an early point in his young life, everything slowed and Keith woke up alone. The pathway forgotten.

The sight of bright eyes that hold lightning over a churning ocean, and a horizontal scar were the first things break in through the haze of his lucid dreaming. Protect. It was the one thought, more impulse and feeling than cohesive trail of thinking, that stuck to him. So he complied, for a time, and simply watched.

The man, called Shiro, was like a ship missing a wing in both a figurative and literal sense. Flying shaky and hitting the ground hard enough to leave gouged rivets in the tender soil underneath. There was a wrongness in that. It didn’t suit Shiro in the same way that never feeling a need to close his own eyes and rest seemed unsuited to Keith. The core behind the reasons why only seemed to run from him no matter how hard he made attempts at chasing them. Movies seem to spark something in his mind but they don’t bring Keith any closer to his goal of remembering the things he can feel he’s forgotten. At the very least it gives him something to do while Shiro does what he can’t and sleeps. 

Now and then, Keith will glimpse a room. One with lights the glow a brilliant purple, a pale body illuminated under the glow. There are no mirrors or windows in this room to give Keith a glimpse of the face he has begun to believe is his own. What sticks with him are charts and knives and a rush that he can identify as anger running through his other body like an electric current. His current leaves him almost incapable of feeling anything. Distantly, the sound of monitors beeping grow louder in his mind.

“It’s okay to be afraid Keith.” Shiro’s voice breaks through the white noise. He was certainly afraid, though it was Keith who now had more to lose. 

Coran produces the strangest looking cell phone Shiro has ever seen when he dials the number he was given to reach Ulaz and Thace. Coran tells him it’s “for safety!” but he still holds it far from him face out of precaution from the whirring he can hear that it holds within. The memory of difficult phone calls with snarling phone screens that grow, threatening to eat him alive and buttons that pierce his fingertips like the spikes of an animal in danger. Even lacking a way to see, voice being the only connection, Thace only has concern for his child, Keith. As before, it’s Ulaz who leads them in the forward march.

“We must put the boy back whole. It is the only way to find true freedom for him.” Shiro can hear Ulaz’s in the background over a quiet track of wind rushing outside the windows of a car and the honking of car horns that sound too close to be safe. 

“This would be no life for him!” Ulaz continues. “Death would provide more freedom for him than this!” Shiro can hear Thace snarl next to the mouthpiece.

“I know this Ulaz! You think I don’t know that you are right? But to see him back under Zarkon’s thumb! It is a test of all my strength..” Those words are the feather that breaks the scale.

“This is not about you! Either of you!” Shiro’s commanding tone and scathing frown make Allura quietly raise her eyebrows in surprise. It’s not hard to see that Thace wishes they could leave Keith as he is. The goal of keeping him safe holding out high over any other thought Thace might have. A mission without wavering command. The screech of tires interrupts the softened bickering of now three men.

“Sendak!” Shiro has to pull the phone back from his ear at Ulaz’s shout. He looks at the phone hoping Ulaz and Thace are not in a repeat of history of what happened to Keith and himself barely a day ago. 

“What?” Shiro croaks it out, a knot in his lungs.

“Not a what, but a who.” Thace’s words sound as if he’s clenching his teeth. Shiro bites and peels skin from his lip, concern sitting over his frustration with the two men as he waits for Thace to continue after a hard breath. “I’m uploading files to a secure server, if we do not manage to contact you again in the next hour or two.. Assume the worst and move forward accordingly with the information I am providing.”

It’s obviously an order but it doesn’t bring Shiro even a drop of comfort. He can only look back and forth from Allura to Coran and try keep himself from flying too near to the bright searing ball of his panic and taking him down with its heat.

“Protect him.” It the last thing Shiro hears in Thace’s voice and then the line goes dead. Shiro looks at Keith and nods. Even if Thace hadn’t instructed him to do so, Shiro knows he’ll do everything he can to do just that. 

Allura looks between him and Keith and nods. Somehow, Shiro knows she’s agreeing to do the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill,  
> comment+kudo me
> 
> [on twitter @ ghostlypng](https://twitter.com/ghostlypng/)


	10. time to come around pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally finally, Keith is back where he should but shouldn't be.  
> Oh and Zarkon is there.

“Sir.” A gravelly voice calls low to a man across the room. Tall and stiff back, face lit by the glow of a set of computer screens that flash with numbers and script rolling vertically over both.

“What is it now?” The answer comes, an irritable growl, the squeak of a high back leather chair the only other sound besides the click of keyboard keys being tapped on with a focus that borders aggressively.

“Red Lion has reactivated itself. My team is currently running diagnostics as I came to inform you immediately.”

The figure in the chair turns, the glow of lamp light casting an eerie yellow shine over the smart rimless square framed glasses he wears. “Excellent. Allow me to accompany you to oversee. I would be highly disconcerted should your team slip up again Doctor Hagger.”

“Of course.” She covers her slight worry under no small amount of smarmy faux self-confidence. “Right this way Doctor Zarkon.” She bows her head just slightly, gesturing respectfully as if she has an option to lead him as opposed to following at his heels like a well-trained dog, lapping after him in need.

When they arrive in the lab, Zarkon makes eye contact with his prized weapon. He allows himself to spare a moment to admire the fierce look of a warrior that burns in its violet quartz coloured eyes. A twisted fondness slithers up his arms and over his chest. He smiles just slight enough to expose a slim strip of perfect white teeth. Approximately ten seconds tick by before his Red Lion looks away and the moment is gone, replaced by thoughts of business.

“Good evening Thace. You and your colleagues have reawakened Red Lion.” The voice startles a few of the scientists, so caught up in their hustle they hadn’t yet noted Hagger’s return or Zarkon’s presence.

Thace is too well-trained in his military background and is appreciative for how it keeps his shoulders from drawing up in a defensive reaction. “Yes, Dr Zarkon. We have a few more non-technical tests to run but Akira appears to be fully awake and functional. We are still unsure as to what was affecting him so but it may have to do with a bio-chip discovered to be attached to the base of the neck. It appears to be intended to transmit a sort of brain wave replicating signal. Though it has yet to be analysed as to why and to where it was transmitting to.” Thace plans to see it fried before it can be.

“Hm.” Zarkon says nothing, walking over to the cyborg that has resumed glaring at him. He combs a hand through its hair before taking a firm grip and yanking. He pulls and pushes against its struggling until he’s forced its head to nearly parallel between its knees.

“Sh, my boy. I only want to look.” He can feel vibrations coming from its throat as it more than likely growls at him behind its muzzle. Zarkon’s finger runs down the center back of its neck where hairline meets bare skin. He does so, curious to see if blemish marring its skin can be felt. He also gets a sick thrill from the way chill bumps break out instantaneously down its arms. More so as angry muffled sounds continue as he admires. “Undamaged then?” His question is for Thace as he removes both his hand from holding Akira down.

“Yes.” Hagger chimes in eagerly. “The nanobots in his synthetic immune system accelerated the healing from when the chip was removed a little too carelessly.” Her eyes cut accusingly to one of the other scientists in the room. “Scarring is unlikely.”

Zarkon hums again. “Very well.” He finds a part of himself wishing to see what his favorite project might look like with a scar or two. He moistens his lips, thinking of the synthetic body that lays dormant only four lab rooms down. A perfect union of so many things he has dubbed “Black Paladin”. He itches to crawl from his old skin and into new. A unique and powerful vessel that will grant him unending existence, even as empires rise and fall under the future command of his soon to be god-like hands. He needs Red Lion to succeed and well to be assured his climb to power will have undeniable perfection.

He watches his property be maneuvered around by Thace with little bite or resistance and though it’s far from coddling on Thace’s part he cannot help but wonder how deep veins of affection may run between the two. It makes no difference to him. He has no reason to doubt Thace’s commitment to the Red Lion project and subsequently his commitment to Zarkon’s authority. He thinks of the young man who had, unknowingly, consented to donate DNA to Galra Tech when the Red Lion project had been in its formative stages. The bulk of his body had, in the end, been the factor that made them pass over his sample. Zarkon’s deceased wife had provided much better compatibility results with others anyway.

Red Lion captured so much of her intensity at times that at times Zarkon felt almost as if his Red Lion was capable of being more than it was. He had been sure to keep that crushed under his thumb from the beginning.

Zarkon walked to one side of the room, flipping through the file that laid out open on the table. Papers charting Red Lions growth progress from fertilized egg to strange almost-violet child to current form were spread out. Yellow marks of highlighter over certain areas had been left as his employees attempted to decipher what was wrong. Red lines under other spots had been made to notate where the potential for improvement laid. He paid little attention to it.

“I expect a report when you know more.” Zarkon said, sweeping casually out of the room and taking the tension in the air with him. Hagger followed behind, likely eager to request permission to make a submission for more funding for another of her bizarre and experimental projects. Thace knew he would not wish her back again. He was also sure he was not alone in that, a little chatter starting up in the room is his most obvious clue.

“Well.” Thace stands up straight, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It appears this adventure hasn’t done any harm to you physically.” He regrets not being able to ask Keith if he’s feeling alright. _It will end soon._ He reassures himself, not allowing any measure of doubt to creep in. Keith watches him with confused eyes. A look full of questions that Thace would answer if he could but for now he knows they will both have to wait.

He looks at Keith a little longer, fatherly tenderness in his gaze. “Sedate it.” He orders, watching as Keith is held down. He grips the regret he feels tightly as a large needle sinks into Keith’s skin. The feeling is a reminder he has sinned against nature past a point of atonement. Yet only divine intervention will stop him from freeing his son and reuniting him with Shiro.

Consciousness gently trades hands with dreams, caressing Keith as it releases him. He lands somewhere in a fishbowl. A memory circling him like a hungry shark till it barrels forward and swallows him down into a soggy recollection. There is a surface underneath him, keeping him upright in a seated position. He runs his fingers over it, puzzled by the way it feels like nothing. Neither do his limbs. He looks at them. He is still looking when a voice catches his attention and brings his eyes upward. There are people moving on a screen. It’s something to marvel at. The bright colors and the long vibrations of their voices. _Singing._ His mind offers. He..

He’d done something to make it happen. _His password is his mother’s occupation followed by the year of her birth_. Keith struggles against the drugs in his system. He needs to remember.

“I don’t remember owning this movie.” The room melts away like dispersing smoke. The medial temporal lobe of his brain offers him only part of what he wants to see. A silver arm. Dark pink scar over the strong bridge of a nose.

Thace’s voice in the background like a chorus. “It’s only temporary. Till we, ... It’s only temporary. Till we, ... It’s only temporary. Till we, ...”

Keith thrashes in his sleep with the real Thace watching in hidden anxiousness.

“Dose him again.” Hagger orders. It all goes dark for Keith as his body is flooded with more drugs. Thace wishes he could give the signal now to Allura and her team. He knows he can wait but he hates it.

“He said it would take some time Shiro.” Allura does her best to reassure him as they stand by for that signal.

Shiro tries not to sigh too hard. “I know. It’s just that waiting is hard.” He pauses, rubbing his side. “Not knowing if everything is going according to how we planned it.”

“You know!” Coran chimes in from where he’s standing behind Pidge’s seat at a computer. “Thace paid a good deal of money to that employee Slav! He sure as anything better follow through on the plan!”

“Right. Slav.” They’d barely spoken but Shiro knew he’d never be able to stand a guy like that who demanded payment before he’d offer himself to help save someone from a life of indentured servitude and being forced to commit still unknown crimes against humanity. Not to mention the guy was beyond paranoid and Shiro knew a thing or two about that.

They weren’t in class or any sort of sanctioned meeting but Hunk still raised his hand into the air and waited for Coran to point and acknowledge him before he spoke up. “Okay. Question. Not that this building isn’t the coolest I’ve ever been inside of in my life, but why are we here?”

Lance, ever the supportive boyfriend, chimes in behind him. “Yeah! Why are we here!”

“Good question number three!” Coran snaps his fingers.

“Three?” Pidge turns from their computer screen to squint at him.

“I have you ranked based on heights number five!”

“What!” Lance whines, voice raised. “I’m totally taller than Hunk!” Shiro puts his forehead into a hand.

Hunk pinches the bridge of his nose. “Lance, now really isn’t the time.” Pidge turns back around with a snicker. The signal goes off.

"Showtime!" Lance calls, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i meant for this to be the last chapter then an epilogue but it was getting a bit long so i'm breaking it into 2 parts.
> 
> Offer to me comments and kudos?  
> feedback is good y'know.

**Author's Note:**

> lol K31T Helper. K31T H. Keith. Shiro and Pidge are both computer nerds.  
> check out @miihuan on Twitter for good Voltron & sheith content.
> 
> i don't have a beta reader so feedback is always appreciated.


End file.
